While the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs has not officially announced it, the agency reportedly has agreed to delay enforcement of its new language access rule for 60 days after it goes into effect on June 27.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Want to learn more about the new NYC language access rule? Sign up for a webinar on Monday, June 22 to get the information you need.]
The enforcement delay would create a window allowing companies to implement the proper policies and procedures to comply with the law while removing concerns about possible enforcement actions.
To help companies comply with the new rule, which requires debt collectors to notify individuals who do not speak or read English well about other options that may be available to help those people understand their rights and communicate with collection agencies, the NYC DCA also said it will publish guidance in the form of Frequently Asked Questions. The DCA did not provide a date to announce when that guidance will be made available.
Word of the delay and the FAQ guidance became public following a meeting earlier this week between the DCA and ACA International, the New York Collectors Association, Receivables Management Association International, National Creditors Bar Association and the New York State Creditors Bar Association.
Under the proposed rule, debt collectors would be required to:
- Inform consumers — in any initial collection notice and on any public-facing websites maintained by the collector — of the availability of any language access services provided by the collector and of a translation and description of commonly-used debt collection terms in a consumer’s preferred language on the Department’s website;
- Request, record, and retain, to the extent reasonably possible, a record of the language preference of each consumer from whom the collector attempts to collect a debt; and
- Maintain a report identifying, by language, the number of consumer accounts on which an employee of the collector attempted to collect a debt in a language other than English, and the number of employees that attempted to collect on such accounts.
Debt collectors would be prohibited from:
- Providing false, inaccurate, or incomplete translations of any communication to a consumer in the course of attempting to collect a debt; and
- Misrepresenting or omitting a consumer’s language preference when returning, selling, or referring for litigation any consumer account, where the debt collector is aware of such preference.
